Are you mowing the lawn while your house is on fire? 3 ways nutrition often goes wrong.

Our friends over at Precision Nutrition recently did an interview with Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon, nutrition guru and coach, and we really resonated with what she had to say. Maybe you do, too?

When asked “What are the 3 areas where people often go wrong with their nutrition?” she responded:

“1. Over-thinking things and creating overly complex ‘rules.’

Keep it simple. Keep it flexible. Keep it real.

Rules and restrictions lead to blowouts and binges, feeling deprived, anxiety, and just way too much mental real estate devoted to the wrong things.

— (here’s how we interpret that at Valeo) —Guidelines are great for focusing on which direction you should go – rules dictate and leave *you* out of the equation. Choose guidelines over rules.

2. Under-feeling things and tuning out your body cues.

‘Listen to your body’ is a cliché now, unfortunately, and most people don’t know what the phrase actually means. It means that you must be able to sense in – physically – to the changing sensations in your body that give you important information about your biological needs.

We ignore those cues now, or have forgotten how to hear them. Or we simply can’t hear them against the ding of “information” and the workings of our thinky brain.

— (here’s how we interpret that at Valeo) —Eat slowly (and then even more slowly). Sense and savor every bite as you notice the texture, the spices, the sweetness, the feel-good-ness (or not-goodness). What does full actually feel like? What does satisfied feel like – is that different than full?

3. Giving eating too much gravity and shrinking your perspective.

Stay loose and easy with it. If you can keep it simple and devote yourself to learning, hearing, and truly respecting your body’s signals, then that’s all you need.

When you focus too much on the details, you lose the big picture.

You might be mowing the lawn with your house on fire – drinking açai smoothies or popping green coffee bean extract or not eating after 7 pm…

==> …when really, all you need to do is learn when you’re truly physically hungry, and when you’re physically satiated <==

— (here’s how we interpret that at Valeo) —Don’t stress over the little things if the big rocks aren’t addressed first.

When you over-focus on your food, eating habits, and body image, you shrink your world and become a very limited human being. You use food and eating and focusing on body composition as a way to escape the real world and real feelings.

And in the end, you don’t get what you really want, which is to feel goodin your body, soul, and spirit.”

— (here’s how we interpret that at Valeo) —Life is more than about what foods we do or don’t eat. Be mature about nutrition, but don’t give food more power than it deserves…you’re way too awesome for that.

If you want to dip your toes into this food freedom and start using more “big rock” guidelines for your nutrition over strict rules or a free-for-all approach, check out Valeo / Nutrition, powered by Precision Nutrition. It’s a daily email system to help you practice self-awareness and what healthy eating might look like for you. Click below for more info or email: nutrition@valeotraining.com to get started.